AFCEA to honor Spires

AFCEA's Bethesda Chapter has organized an appreciation event for former Department of Homeland Security CIO Richard Spires, who resigned on May 7, for his years of leadership and government service.

The event, which Spires will attend, is scheduled for Monday, July 29, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. (Click here to register.)

Spires, who won FCW's Eagle Award this spring, was on leave for two months prior to submitting his resignation, and news of a well-respected federal official in apparent turmoil caused considerable confusion in the federal IT community and led to lots of speculation about the cause.

Many details of Spires' departure remain unclear, but he experienced considerable success over eight years of federal service – four years at the IT helm of DHS, and prior to that four years at the Internal Revenue Service.

"I was surprised and grateful that the federal IT industry would want to recognize me for the work I did at DHS and over the past eight years with the IRS and serving the federal IT community at large," Spires told FCW. "It's very nice."

Spires is still assessing his future, but said he has taken to consulting – on his own, not for a company – in the interim.

"I'm going to consult for a while and I'm definitely using this as a transition time to assess what I want to do next," Spires said. "Consulting is one of those options, and I'm also going to look at full-time opportunities."

FCW investigated efforts by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to improve a joint data repository on military and veteran suicides. Something as impersonal and mundane as incomplete datasets could be exacerbating a national tragedy.